


Jairus' Daughter

by Penthesilea1623



Series: Come Back Home [8]
Category: Mass Effect
Genre: F/M, Post Destroy Ending, for Shepday (April 11th), lots of personal headcanon, one shot (for now)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-11
Updated: 2014-04-11
Packaged: 2018-01-18 23:51:21
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,639
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1447540
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Penthesilea1623/pseuds/Penthesilea1623
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>This is something I wrote as an intro to a post destroy ending sequel to Come Back Home. I’ve come to realize that with as many stories as I’ve got in the works it will probably be years before I get to it, but I still like the idea, so Happy Birthday Shep! </p><p>In this story, EDI has survived but Miranda died in the final battle. Shepard has recovered from the injuries she received and Kaidan and the Normandy have made it safely back. The Normandy and her crew are currently on assignment, assisting in the rebuilding efforts.</p>
    </blockquote>





	Jairus' Daughter

**Author's Note:**

> This is something I wrote as an intro to a post destroy ending sequel to Come Back Home. I’ve come to realize that with as many stories as I’ve got in the works it will probably be years before I get to it, but I still like the idea, so Happy Birthday Shep! 
> 
> In this story, EDI has survived but Miranda died in the final battle. Shepard has recovered from the injuries she received and Kaidan and the Normandy have made it safely back. The Normandy and her crew are currently on assignment, assisting in the rebuilding efforts.

Oriana had forwarded them the files, saying she’d found them among Miranda’s things. She hadn’t looked at them, merely sent them to Shepard and Kaidan as per the instructions Miranda had left. 

It’s late in the day before she and Kaidan get a chance to look at them.

They start with a video message from Miranda herself, filmed some time before she went to Horizon to confront her father. It’s brief.

_“I’m sorry Shepard. I tried telling you once on the Citadel but I was too much of a coward. This is all the information I’ve been able to put together. I hope one day you can forgive me.”_

Kaidan looks at his wife. “Do you know what she’s talking about?”

Shepard’s frowning. “I remember her apologizing about wanting to install a control chip. I thought it was strange at the time, because she’d apologized about it before, back when Cerberus had the Normandy.” She opens the first of several files pertaining to a project titled simply “Jairus”.

It’s a video clip, not unlike those EDI showed her when they stormed the Illusive Man’s Base. The same sterile lab, the same Cerberus lab flunkies hovering around. They all snap to attention as the Illusive Man himself walks in.

“What’s the date on it?” asks Kaidan.

Shepard checks the time stamp. “February, 2184.”

One of the techs leads the Illusive Man to what appears to be a bassinet in the corner.

_“Here she is, sir. 8 pounds 6 ounces, 21 inches long.”_

_“She’s healthy? The preliminary tests were accurate?”_

For the first time Shepard can remember the Illusive Mans sounds anxious.

The woman smiles reassuringly. _“She’s perfectly healthy.”_

The Illusive Man looks down at the baby and a strange look comes over his face. He reaches out and touches her cheek. The baby’s eyes flicker open and she frowns. He smiles down at her, a genuine smile, Shepard notes with surprise.

 _“You look like your mother.”_ He comments. The baby turns towards his voice and a small hand reaches out and grasps his finger. 

He seems to go still. After a moment he leans down and picks her up, cradling her in his arms. The baby is remarkably alert for a newborn and just looks at him with that small frown. She doesn’t relax her grip on his finger. He watches her, rocking her back and forth a little. Her eyes slowly close and she goes back to sleep. Without taking his eyes from her he calls over the technician.

_“Notify my staff. I want a room set up for her next to mine. Everything she’ll need. A nanny, a nurse, a full security staff.”_

The lab tech is clearly confused. _“Sir?”_

 _“I’m taking her with me.”_

_"That wasn’t part of the protocol, sir."_ The woman starts to say but stops at one glance from those cybernetic eyes. _"Yes sir."_ She leaves the room.

He looks down back at the baby, who is still staring at him. _“Talitha.”_ He says softly. _"Talitha cumi.”_ He laughs softly and he leaves the room still holding her.

“Oh, God.” Shepard sounds horrified. 

Kaidan looks at her and sees she’s gone white. “Ophelia, what is it?”

“She’s my daughter.” She says.

Kaidan’s confused by her certainty. “Shepard that’s crazy.”

“Don’t you see? I was the Lazarus Project.” She reminds him. She can see Kaidan still doesn’t understand, and she continues, her voice more agitated. “In the Bible, in the New Testament, Jesus raised Lazarus, one of his followers, from the dead. But later on, Jesus also raises the daughter of another follower, a man named Jairus. Everyone tells him he’s too late, that it’s impossible, but he goes into her room and says…” She is having trouble getting the words out. She swallows hard. “Jesus says ‘Talitha Cumi’ “ She looks up at him helplessly. “It means “awake little girl”.

Kaidan looks back at the screen. “But how?”

“I don’t know.” Says Shephard frantically. “Maybe he had my eggs harvested and fertilized? Maybe she’s another clone? One he let progress naturally?” She scrambles to play the next clip, desperate for an answer. 

The child is older now, 10 months old according to the date stamp. She has masses of dark curly hair sticking up comically in every direction, and is sitting on the floor of a well-appointed nursery playing with some blocks. Looking at her Kaidan can see the resemblance to Shepard. The mouth, the chin, the way she tilts her head as she carefully examines the block, turning it in both hands before putting it in her mouth and chewing on it.

 _“Anastasia.”_ Calls the Illusive Man from out of frame.

She looks up at him and the camera zooms in on her face so she is looking almost directly into it. Her eyes are huge, surrounded by black lashes and brown, not the grey blue of Shepard’s eyes.

So not a clone, Kaidan thinks, and is about to say it out loud, when the child turns slightly and sunlight hits her face, and her eyes turn a rich golden brown. Kaidan freezes. He sees eyes that color every morning when he looks in the mirror.

He turns to Shepard and the realization hits them both at the same time.

“Oh God.” White hot rage blinds her. “That son of a bitch.” She screams, barely sounding human. She picks up the terminal and before Kaidan can stop her she’s thrown it through the display case. She is screaming her pain and rage. It takes all of Kaidan’s strength to hold her.

“EDI!” He shouts, barely hearing himself above the sound of Shepard’s screaming.

“Yes, Major?” Comes the disembodied voice.

“Get Dr. Chakwas up here with a sedative.”

“Yes Major.”

When Shepard is finally sedated and lying unconscious on the bed Kaidan explains everything to Dr. Chakwas. 

When he finishes he runs his hands through his hair and looks at her. “Is that even medically possible?” He asks.

Dr. Chakwas shakes her head. “I’ve seen the Lazarus files, Kaidan. I would have told you it wasn’t possible to bring Shepard back and yet the Illusive Man did it.”

“Could she have been pregnant when the Normandy went down?” He asks.

“You probably have more information on that than I do. Is it possible?” She asks with a tilt of her head.

He thinks about that night before Ilos, and then on shore leave, and even back on the SR1, of how reckless they’d been, unable to help themselves, about how many times they made love. Of how careless they had been, and not just about being caught together. “Yeah. Yeah it is.”

Dr. Chakwas puts a sympathetic hand on his arm. “She should wake up in a couple of hours.” She tells him and leaves the cabin.

Kaidan cleans up the broken glass and gets a new terminal hooked up while she sleeps. He pours over the documents and videos that Miranda had gathered together.

The project seems to have started out as a backup plan. _“If Lazarus fails, if Shepard fails, we’ll have her daughter. Think of it as a long term investment.”_ The Illusive Man says at one point. 

But something strange happens after the child is born, after the Illusive Man brings her home with him.

The recordings become less like the notes on an experiment, and more like the home videos one sees of children, the kinds taken by an indulgent parent.

He watches in the dim light of the fish tank as his daughter starts to walk, and starts to talk. She is in the same lavish nursery and she toddles over to a table and takes down a picture frame. She brings it to the Illusive Man who is sitting on a rocking chair watching her.

 _“And what’s this, Anastasia?”_ He asks feigning surprise.

She peers at the picture as if to confirm what she has given him. _“Ma!”_ She proclaims.

 _“Very good!”_ He says praising her. _“Yes, that’s Mommy.”_

What the hell? Kaidan thinks. He leans forward.

 _“Mommy!”_ The child repeats and leans forward. _“Tasia Mommy!”_

_“Yes, Anastasia’s Mommy. And what’s Mommy called?”_

_“Shepper!”_ The child crows, and leans over and kisses the picture. It’s obviously a ritual, a game that they’ve played many times. 

He can just make out the picture now. It’s one of Shepard, a PR photo from when she’d been made the first human spectre, a close up of her face, looking off camera.

Anastasia tilts her head. _“Mommy wake up?”_

 _“Very soon.”_ The Illusive Man promises.

Kaidan glances at the date stamp. A few weeks before Shepard had been woken by Miranda, and started working for Cerberus. He feels physically ill. He reaches to turn it off but is stopped by Shepard’s voice.

“No, leave it.” She slides out of the bed and walks over to him. He pulls her into his lap. Together they watch as their daughter climbs into the Illusive Man’s lap with a book, demanding that he read. The camera zooms in on her face as she slowly drifts off to sleep while he does. Shepard reaches out and turns off the vid feed.

“Do you know what Anastasia means?” She asks him, still staring at the now dark monitor. 

He shakes his head. 

“Reborn.” She turns and looks at him and tears are rolling down her cheeks. “That should have been us. Kaidan. We should have been reading her stories.” She says. He can feel the despair in her voice. For the first time she seems broken, almost more so than by the Collectors or the Reapers.

He pulls her close. “We have a daughter, Ophelia, and she’s as smart and as beautiful as her mother. We’ll find her.” He promises. “And when we do, we’ll read her so many stories she’ll be begging for us to stop.”

**Author's Note:**

> more photo inspirations and other Mass Effect related things can be found on my tumblr: [Come Back Home inspiration/style references](http://penthesilea1623.tumblr.com/search/Come+Back+Home)


End file.
